Isn’t Wes Anderson probably everyone’s favourite filmmaker? His great, unique imagination at least applies to a large chunk of the contemporary cinema crowd. De Texan filmmaker, now in his forties, started out in 1996 with Bottle Rocket – a low budget heist-comedy. It starred Owen & Luke Wilson, who are both in about everything Anderson has put to celluloid since. Martin Scorsese named Bottle Rocket ‘one of the great films of the nineties’ – after that Andersons career exploded.
Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums made him the uncrowned king of independent American cinema. He sustained this image with all his other endeavors in the past ten years – The Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Darjeeling Limited perhaps as the ones we personally love the most.
With some artists it’s difficult to point out what it is precisely that you love about their work. With Anderson, the hardest part lies in deciding what there is not to like. His attention to detail is uncanny, his love for color endless. Despite the fact that his films generally deal with not so easy subjects as loss, melancholia and the tragedy of fathers & sons, his pace is usually upbeat. He also offers a quirkyness in his work that prevents it from being too perfect. It stays human. Anderson at his best is funny and sad, often at the same time.
His most recent output is The Grand Budapest Hotel, a story set in a ficticious European country in the 1930’s. It tells us the story of a bell boy, who falls under the care of the concierge of the hotel. As always with Anderson, the film is rich in detail and offers a portrait that is both fickle and affectionate. Oh, and lest we forget – it’s very funny too. Go and see it, if you haven’t already done so.